Southeast Asia Becomes the Beating Heart of the TON Ecosystem

by
Victoria d’Este

Printed: September 11, 2025 at 10:52 am Up to date: September 11, 2025 at 10:53 am

by Victor Dey

Edited and fact-checked:
September 11, 2025 at 10:52 am

To enhance your local-language expertise, generally we make use of an auto-translation plugin. Please observe auto-translation might not be correct, so learn authentic article for exact info.

From headline keynotes in Manila to strategic aspect occasions in Kuala Lumpur, TON’s presence at latest Southeast Asian conferences has been each seen and intentional. In our dialog, Alena, Director of Ecosystem Success, and Josephine, Head of SSEA Hub, mirrored on how these gatherings have accelerated developer outreach, neighborhood constructing, and ecosystem development, setting the stage for TON’s subsequent chapter within the area.

How would you assess TON’s total expertise at Philippine Blockchain Week 2025 and different latest occasions like Malaysia Blockchain Week? What key aims had been achieved at these conferences?

Philippine Blockchain Week 2025 – Key Takeaways

Expertise Evaluation:

TON was prominently featured on stage — each in a panel dialogue with Kaia, Polkadot, and Tether, and a solo keynote introducing our TON Hub and the main target areas for TON in 2025.

Extra publicity got here by way of an academic session hosted by Cryptology Academy, partaking blockchain college students and builders.

Aims Achieved:

Developer Outreach: Held conversations with main developer communities (Bitskwela, Web3Bulacan, Mr. Meric, and so forth.) to plan dev onboarding initiatives.

Ecosystem Promotion: Introduced TON-native use instances like Aliniex (native on-ramp), Storm Commerce (main perp DEX), and NFT Telegram items and Stickers as the important thing narrative.

KOL Engagement: Linked with dozens of native content material creators and KOLs.

Regulatory Insights: Mentioned market constraints with Tether’s native group, which was helpful in shaping how we place TON within the Philippines.

Malaysia Blockchain Week – Key Takeaways

Expertise Evaluation:

TON secured a keynote talking slot and media publicity by way of MYBW’s official channel.

Actively engaged in high-value aspect occasions (Pudgy Penguin, and so forth.) and held strategic 1:1 conferences with traders, incubators, media, and scholar orgs.

Aims Achieved:

Mission Pipeline: Linked with a number of promising groups (GameFi, DeFi, sticker apps) and shared TON onboarding assets.

Strategic Relationships: Constructed relationships with main gamers like Plutus VC, Outlier Ventures, CH90, APU BCC, and Lydian Labs (who will promote TON to incubated initiatives).

Scholar Dev Entry: Initiated collaboration with APU Blockchain Membership, a key gateway to school devs in Malaysia.

We achieved robust speaker visibility on each the principle phases and aspect occasions, making certain constant publicity all through. Throughout each markets, we engaged with dozens of builders and communities, whereas additionally constructing out native KOL and influencer networks, significantly round NFTs and Mini Apps. As well as, we strengthened {our relationships} with high regional VCs, incubators, and media shops. Lastly, the occasions supplied helpful market insights, together with developer ratios, the evolving regulatory local weather, and the affect of content material creators.

Which TON initiatives or merchandise generated essentially the most curiosity amongst attendees and contributors?

Telegram Property (NFTs, Presents, Mini Apps)

TON Presents and NFT-related use instances (e.g. Tonnel, Getgems) drew robust consideration, particularly from content material creators, buying and selling communities, and NFT influencers.

At each occasions, Mini App Video games had been a recurring level of pleasure — a number of KOLs and initiatives expressed curiosity in constructing or selling Telegram-integrated video games and sticker apps on TON.

DeFi on TON

Merchandise like StormTrade and discussions round DeFi verticals had been well-received, significantly in Malaysia, the place DeFi protocols and merchants dominated the occasion panorama.

Attendees at DeFi-focused aspect occasions (like Bagel Finance’s meetup) confirmed curiosity in TON’s rising DeFi ecosystem and its Telegram-native UX benefit.

TON Funds & On/Off-Ramps

Options like Aliniex (PH) and AquaNow (MY) sparked deeper conversations round funds, on-chain usability, and native fiat ramps.

The dialogue with Tether’s Philippines group highlighted each the necessity and alternative for compliant, seamless cost rails on TON in rising markets.

What would you say about TON’s core mission at present, and the way is it completely different from the early days?

In 2025, TON’s deep integration with Telegram is enabling a brand new sort of digital expertise the place funds, apps, digital belongings, and AI are seamlessly woven into on a regular basis chats. By embedding wallets, mini apps, and digital possession straight into conversations, TON makes it doable for customers to entry monetary companies, utilities, and alternatives multi functional place: Telegram. 

Within the early days, the muse was laid with core infrastructure: wallets like @pockets, Tonkeeper, MyTonWallet, and protocols corresponding to DeDust, STON.fi, Tonstakers, and EVAA, together with the primary wave of video games. This was adopted by a surge of mass adoption in 2024 with the rise of Tap2Earn apps like Notcoin, DOGS, and Catizen — every surpassing 20M customers, lots of whom got here on-chain for the primary time.

This 12 months, our focus is extra focused: we’re doubling down on 5 key areas — Funds, Easy Finance, Video games, Telegram-native belongings (Presents and Stickers), and Good Brokers. To help this imaginative and prescient, we’ve launched a extra strategic ecosystem help mannequin, providing hands-on assist in advertising, fundraising, product partnerships, and past to groups constructing sustainable, high-impact apps on TON.

Wanting again, what are TON’s greatest achievements in Southeast Asia to this point, and the way have these formed your technique for 2025?

Builder-Centered Ecosystem Development

We launched two editions of IdeaTON, TON’s flagship hackathon in Southeast Asia, which attracted over 70 challenge submissions and a whole bunch of developer contributors. Past the hackathons, we hosted on-line workshops, coding classes, and builder calls throughout Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and India—laying the muse for a powerful native builder neighborhood. 

Our presence prolonged to main offline occasions as properly, with talking engagements at Philippines Blockchain Week, Malaysia Blockchain Week, and GM Vietnam. In collaboration with Phenikaa College, Tether, and OKX, we additionally co-hosted an offline occasion in Vietnam that introduced collectively 800 college students.

Deep Group & KOL Engagement

Constructed grassroots momentum by way of AMA classes, offline meetups in 4 nations, and localized content material efforts.

Cultivated robust ties with SEA-based KOLs, particularly in Vietnam and the Philippines—making certain TON-native narratives attain the precise audiences.

Bootcamps

Have 3 Hacker League Bootcamp in 3 cities:

We achieved robust speaker visibility on each the principle phases and aspect occasions, making certain constant publicity all through. Throughout each markets, we engaged with dozens of builders and communities, whereas additionally constructing out native KOL and influencer networks — significantly round NFTs and Mini Apps. As well as, we strengthened {our relationships} with high regional VCs, incubators, and media shops. Lastly, the occasions supplied helpful market insights, together with developer ratios, the evolving regulatory local weather, and the affect of content material creators.

What are essentially the most promising areas within the TON ecosystem proper now — DeFi, video games, social apps, identification?

We have now fairly a transparent focus now: Funds, Easy Finance, Video games, Telegram belongings (Presents, stickers), and Good brokers. 

Funds 

TON is shortly turning into a worldwide funds layer constructed straight into Telegram, the place sending cash is so simple as sending a message: by means of @pockets in Telegram and the entire array of different ecosystem mini apps. 

Past peer-to-peer transfers, we’re seeing actual traction throughout numerous use instances: cross-border remittances (Anzo), native on/off-ramps (Aliniex, Bitso), stablecoin funds for on-line companies, crypto playing cards for spending wherever (Holders, RedotPay), marketplaces with cashback and loyalty rewards (TONCash), and even real-world companies like reserving journey (EntravelX, TON Journey) or journey hailing (Linkroad). These use instances are already dwell and fixing actual issues for on a regular basis customers.

Easy Finance

Historically, DeFi in Web3 has centered round attracting institutional and whale liquidity. TON has made robust progress on this enviornment—TVL lately hit all-time highs, pushed by rising institutional curiosity and integrations with custody suppliers, cross-chain bridges, and institutional-grade infrastructure. However TON’s actual edge lies in its integration into Telegram and entry to its +1 billion retail customers. This creates a uncommon alternative to construct a mass-market DeFi layer, targeted not on complexity however on simplicity.

TON’s DeFi stack has been rising steadily since day one. Core protocols like STON.fi and DeDust (DEXs), Tonstakers (liquid staking), and EVAA (lending) laid the groundwork. They’ve since been joined by next-generation gamers like Torch (secure swaps and yield-bearing stablecoin tgUSD), TONCO (concentrated liquidity market maker), and Fiva (yield tokenization). These protocols at the moment are evolving to fulfill the wants of on a regular basis customers by launching Mini Apps with simplified, mobile-first interfaces.

We’re additionally seeing early DeFi gamers like Tradoor and Storm Commerce — perpetual DEXs — optimizing their interfaces for mainstream, mobile-native customers. That is the course we imagine in: sensible, yield-generating merchandise delivered by means of consumer-grade UX.

To help this, we’re embedding actual belongings into these experiences: Ethena (as much as 18% APY, dwell), Tether Gold (dwell), Telegram bonds tokenized by Libre (upcoming), tgBTC (decentralized Bitcoin on TON, upcoming), and a number of other new stablecoins will quickly be obtainable. For customers, it means unlocking monetary alternative—not on a separate platform, however proper contained in the messenger they use day by day.

Video games

Telegram-native video games took off in 2024, proving the ability of chat-based distribution and social virality. Titles like Catizen, Bombie, and Cattea — initially launched on WeChat and now ported to Telegram — collectively reached 54M customers, generated $49M in income, and introduced 2.5M customers on-chain, with 1.1M paying gamers and ARPPU as excessive as $100. 

As Tap2Earn codecs saturate, we’re shifting focus to the following wave: social, hybrid, and mid-core video games designed for sustainability, robust monetization, and long-term retention. 

Telegram-native belongings like stickers and items are additionally turning into highly effective instruments for consumer engagement and in-game monetization, creating new worth loops between chat, content material, and crypto. With no downloads, seamless chat integration, and native on-chain mechanics, the Telegram + TON stack affords an unprecedented distribution and monetization mannequin for sport builders.

IP & Digital belongings

We’re turning Telegram into the house of the worldwide fan economic system by onboarding main IPs and reworking collectibles into full-fledged model ecosystems. It begins with Telegram-native belongings like items and stickers, which may now turn into NFTs with enforced royalties and in-app utility. From there, IPs can scale into video games and ultimately tokens. This mannequin — confirmed by ecosystems like Pudgy Penguins and LINE — lets manufacturers construct sticky, monetizable fandoms straight on TON.

We’ve already seen early success: Pudgy Penguins launched a number of sticker packs and a mini sport; BAYC, Doodles, and Pucca debuted collectible sticker units; and Snoop Dogg launched a Telegram Reward assortment ($12M in gross sales over <1h) — with many extra IP drops coming quickly. New sticker marketplaces are additionally launching, unlocking secondary gross sales and extra income streams for creators and types. With Telegram’s unmatched attain, TON’s composability, and community-led execution, we’re giving world IPs the simplest, most rewarding method to activate digital fandom — beginning with collectibles and scaling towards brand-owned economies.

Good brokers

AI turns into much more highly effective when embedded straight into chat. Telegram is the proper surroundings: it’s the place customers already speak, transact, and launch apps — making it a pure dwelling for sensible brokers. We’re seeing a brand new class of AI-powered bots that assist customers make investments, store, or automate duties — all backed by TON’s crypto rails. AI isn’t changing interfaces right here; it’s enhancing them, providing a frictionless layer of utility that supercharges engagement throughout the ecosystem.

May you give us a sneak peek at any main product launches, strategic partnerships, or ecosystem expansions that TON has deliberate for 2025?

TON has an thrilling roadmap for 2025, spanning DeFi, safety, interoperability, and branded digital belongings.

On the DeFi entrance, we’re increasing the vary of accessible, yield-generating belongings built-in into Telegram. Ethena is already dwell throughout main TON wallets, providing as much as 18% APY. Tether Gold has launched as an asset which appeals to and is understandable for a web2 investor. Coming quickly: Telegram bonds tokenized by Libre, tgBTC (TON’s decentralized Bitcoin), and new stablecoins, together with yield-bearing ones – all designed to plug seamlessly into easy, Telegram-native funding apps.

We’re additionally doubling down on safety, working intently with high audit corporations like Path of Bits and Zellic to strengthen the security and reliability of core infrastructure and DeFi protocols throughout the ecosystem.

On interoperability, we’ll be saying main developments quickly that can make it even simpler to attach TON with different networks and ecosystems.

Within the IP and digital collectibles house, we’re welcoming a number of the world’s most iconic manufacturers. Pudgy Penguins have already launched sticker packs and a mini sport on Telegram. Different main names like BAYC, Doodles, and Pucca have launched sticker collections on Sticker Pack — main sticker retailer on Telegram, whereas Snoop Dogg’s Telegram Reward assortment is dwell — with extra movie star and IP drops on the way in which. We’re additionally seeing the emergence of recent Telegram sticker marketplaces, unlocking creator monetization and collectible buying and selling at scale.

That is the 12 months when TON moved from foundational infrastructure to full-fledged shopper adoption throughout verticals.

Why is Southeast Asia such a key area for TON? What makes it strategically vital in your view?

Telegram-Native Inhabitants

SEA is likely one of the most lively Telegram areas globally, with thousands and thousands of customers counting on it each day for social, enterprise, and crypto communication.

This aligns completely with TON’s mission to turn into the blockchain layer of Telegram — bringing native pockets, funds, and apps on to customers the place they already are.

Cell-First, Social-Pushed Conduct

Customers in SEA are mobile-first and socially engaged, making them superb adopters for click-to-earn, Mini Apps, and socialFi merchandise constructed on TON.

The virality and neighborhood dynamics right here help quick adoption of recent apps—particularly meme cash, video games, and gamified experiences.

Fast Crypto Adoption & Grassroots Development

International locations like Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia are persistently among the many high in world crypto adoption indexes.

The consumer base is younger, curious, and open to experimentation—particularly when monetary instruments are embedded inside acquainted platforms like Telegram.

Robust Developer & Builder Base

SEA has a rising wave of blockchain builders, many already constructing on Ethereum, Solana, or BNB Chain.

TON’s Mini App framework affords these devs a brand new frontier to faucet into Telegram’s 1B+ customers, making SEA superb for bootstrapping the ecosystem.

Regulatory Variety & Strategic Flexibility

Not like areas with heavy crypto restrictions, SEA affords a mixture of progressive and adaptive regulatory environments — enabling testing and scaling of recent apps.

Southeast Asia represents greater than only a fast-growing area — it’s the superb product-market match for TON. The realm combines excessive Telegram utilization, speedy adoption curves, and powerful builder vitality with a cultural affinity for memes, video games, and community-first initiatives. TON views Southeast Asia because the launchpad for mainstream Web3 adoption inside Telegram and is directing assets, occasions, and partnerships to speed up this imaginative and prescient.

With Vietnam rising as the following main cease for TON, what can we anticipate when it comes to upcoming occasions, activations, or neighborhood development there?

1. Main On-Floor Activations

Metropolis-based Roadshows: Mini-events in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, and presumably Da Nang, targeted on native dev teams, scholar communities, and Web3 startups.

2. Developer & Builder Applications

IdeaTON Vietnam Observe: A devoted native version of the TON hackathon, with Vietnamese devs competing, studying Mini App improvement, and becoming a member of the TON ecosystem.

College & Guild Outreach: Partnerships with tech universities, coding golf equipment, and dev guilds to run workshops and boot camps, in addition to sponsor blockchain programs with TON integration.

3. Gaming, Meme, and SocialFi Focus

Tapping into Vietnam’s robust meme coin tradition and gaming urge for food, anticipate localized campaigns round TON Mini App video games, meme coin launches, and NFT/TON Reward integrations.

Assist for native groups to construct viral click-to-earn video games inside Telegram utilizing TON SDKs.

Growth of the SSEA Hub, providing rewards, content material creation bounties, and internet hosting AMAs to activate native customers.

Nearer collaboration with high Vietnamese KOLs, particularly these in buying and selling, gaming, and Telegram-native niches.

Why Vietnam Issues 

Vietnam combines one of many world’s highest crypto adoption charges with a thriving younger developer neighborhood and deep integration into Telegram tradition. Its meme-loving, gaming-driven viewers makes the nation a super launchpad for TON’s “Telegram x Web3” technique in Asia.

How is consumer habits or crypto adoption completely different in SEA in comparison with different markets, and the way are you adapting to that?

How SEA Differs from Different Markets

1. Telegram = Main Channel

In SEA, Telegram is not only a chat app—it’s the place customers uncover initiatives, commerce ideas, be a part of communities, and work together with bots/video games. In distinction, Western markets rely extra on X (Twitter), Discord, or Web3-native frontends.

2. Cell-First, Quick-Adopting

SEA customers are mobile-native and extra open to attempting new tendencies (e.g., click-to-earn video games, meme tokens, gamified DeFi). Pace of adoption is excessive—pushed by social virality, KOL affect, and neighborhood dynamics.

Customers in SEA care extra about rewards, accessibility, and enjoyable, much less about technical specs like TPS or consensus fashions. Initiatives that really feel relatable and interactive (meme cash, prediction video games, mini apps) develop quicker than infra or tooling-focused ones.

4. Retail-Dominant & Grassroots

SEA is bottom-up: pushed by merchants, KOLs, and tight-knit Telegram teams—not establishments or massive VC narratives. Memes, tendencies, and peer affect are extra highly effective than roadmap milestones.

How TON Is Adapting to SEA Conduct

Constructing Inside Telegram

Launching and supporting Mini Apps, wallets, and video games straight inside Telegram—the place SEA customers already dwell.

Meme & Recreation-Pleasant Technique

Prioritizing meme coin instruments, viral video games, and TON-native NFTs/Presents that talk to SEA tradition.Localized Group Constructing

Activating native guilds, ambassadors, and KOLs in Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Working workshops, builder calls, and AMAs in native languages and time zones.

Reward-Primarily based OnboardingFocusing on “earn to onboard” experiences (clickers, airdrops, referral bonuses) that resonate with the incentive-first habits in SEA.

Are there particular nations in SEA — corresponding to Vietnam, the Philippines, or Malaysia — the place you propose to double down in 2025? What drives these selections?

Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia have been strategically chosen as focus markets as a consequence of a mixture of excessive Telegram utilization, robust grassroots crypto adoption, and rising meme, gaming, and developer communities. Vietnam persistently ranks among the many high nations for crypto adoption, with a extremely Telegram-native and meme-friendly tradition, a powerful developer expertise pool, and an lively hackathon scene. 

Deliberate initiatives embrace large-scale offline occasions, college outreach, an IdeaTON observe, and partnerships with native dev guilds to launch meme and gaming campaigns. The Philippines stands out as an early adopter of play-to-earn and Web3 cell video games, with Telegram being a central communication and gaming platform. 

The market is very retail-driven, supported by instructional orgs like Bitskwela and Web3Bulacan. Publish-PBW 2025, there will likely be a concentrate on onboarding extra builders, selling localized meme cash and TON Presents, and activating KOLs by means of Mini App video games.

Indonesia affords one of many largest mobile-first, Gen Z consumer bases in Southeast Asia, with excessive crypto curiosity and powerful natural development by means of Telegram and TikTok. Native initiatives are starting to discover TON integrations, and deliberate efforts embrace developer and neighborhood meetups, localized campaigns, KOL partnerships, and academic gaming content material. 

In the meantime, Malaysia is rising as a regulatory-friendly hub for Web3 startups, with a developer neighborhood that’s fluent in English and related to each SEA and broader APAC ecosystems. Key plans embrace strategic ecosystem partnerships, integration into universities and workshops, and internet hosting hybrid Web3 x Telegram occasions. 

Throughout all 4 markets, the driving elements for focus embrace excessive Telegram density, maturity of meme and dev cultures, robust retail crypto adoption, profitable occasion traction in 2024–2025, and a regulatory surroundings that enables for innovation in wallets, NFTs, DeFi, and TON Presents.

What tech or crypto pattern do you assume is approach overrated, and what’s one thing underrated that TON is betting on as an alternative?

One pattern we imagine is overrated is the obsession with over-engineered, advanced crypto experiences — whether or not that’s hyper-financialized DeFi protocols, speculative gaming economies, or multi-step onboarding flows that solely attraction to energy customers. These fashions usually chase short-term hype however fail to transform actual customers or ship lasting worth.

At TON, we’re betting on what’s nonetheless underrated within the broader crypto house: radical simplicity and native integration into on a regular basis consumer habits. As a substitute of constructing round friction, we’re embedding actual utility straight inside Telegram—the place folks already spend their time. Meaning seamless funds, 1-click DeFi, chat-native mini apps, and unique Telegram items and stickers that unlock completely new digital experiences and monetization fashions. These aren’t simply gimmicks — they’re laying the muse for a extra intuitive and accessible web powered by crypto, for a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of individuals.

When you needed to outline success for TON over the following 3–5 years, what would that appear to be, past consumer numbers and TVL?

Success for TON isn’t nearly hitting massive consumer numbers or TVL milestones — it’s about turning into invisible infrastructure for on a regular basis digital life. If in 3–5 years, 2 out of three buddies are sporting an NFT reward on their Telegram profile, sending cash as simply as a message, or enjoying a sport that’s absolutely on-chain with out even realizing it — then we’ve carried out our job.

Our north star is easy: to make crypto so simple as sending a message. It ought to simply work — natively, seamlessly, and socially — contained in the platforms folks already love, like Telegram. When customers work together with TON-powered apps not as a result of they’re Web3, however as a result of they’re higher, extra enjoyable, or extra rewarding — that’s actual success.

About The Writer

Victoria is a author on quite a lot of expertise subjects together with Web3.0, AI and cryptocurrencies. Her intensive expertise permits her to put in writing insightful articles for the broader viewers.

Extra articles

Victoria d’Este